Thanks, James
by blackmunji
Summary: Absolutely pointless fluff. Cute, though. Obviously created before Deathly Hallows was released and gave us a better glimpse of Lily and James's relationship, so I suppose it's a sort of AU.
1. In Which Lily's world is devastated

Hello! This is psychoticmassmurderer, breaking into the world of Harry Potter. Truth be told, this story came to her in a dream (really! i woke up and i was like, ok... that HAS TO BE A FANFIC!) and kept beating her over the head until she agreed to post it.

this is going to be an extremely fluffy story on how Lily began to see James as a human being. it'll be really short and sweet, only a three chapter piece. if you do not like fluff, do not read this, i repeat, DO NOT READ THIS! that being said, please observe the following guidelines:

0. All not mine. Joanne Kathleen Rowling's characters, etc.

1. You read.

2. You like.

2. You hate.

3. You write review.

4. You write nice review with constructive criticism and i send you an owl carrying the biggest box of honeydukes' goodies.

4. You write flame and i use it to burn your face off.

5. We all happy.

Got that? Good! Now read.

* * *

The day had been going very well for Lily Evans. She had woken up charm-, curse-, hex-, and prank-free from the Marauders, managed to find matching socks in time to get to Breakfast, which had been toast burned just enough to make it crispy, but not enough to make it inedible, and had gotten top marks on all of her tests from yesterday so far. And right now, she was looking to be the first one to get the hang of the ancient Latin spell for shape-changing objects so that they actually became the desired object, not just the original with a changed exterior. Her rock was coming along nicely into a potato, in both essence and form. She felt the heady rush of success. Even James—no wait, _Potter_ was having a bit of a struggle. 

A messenger came into the room, a Ravenclaw she vaguely remembered, a third year or something like that.

"'Scuse me, Professor, but Lily Evans is to go to the Headmaster at once with all of her things."

Puzzled and a bit annoyed, she gathered up her things, looking back once to see Potter mouthing "Bet you ten Galleons that she's got it now!" to his friends. Indignant, she marched out the door, back ramrod-straight.

* * *

In the Headmaster's office, she sat before the desk, staring at her surroundings. She'd only been here once before, when she was to report to a prefects' and head boy/girl's emergency meeting when the Marauders had put the castle in a lockdown state after exploding enough firecrackers and such to smoke up the whole first floor and the dungeons. 

"Ah, Lily." Abldus Dumbledore smiled wanly at her, blue eyes hardly twinkling behind his half-moon spectacles.

"Good afternoon, Headmaster," she answered nervously.

"I'm afraid I have some grave news for you. I hate to be the bearer of such tidings, but your father has passed away."

"Come again, Headmaster?" Lily couldn't believe her ears. "He's—he's—d—dead?"

He nodded soberly.

"Was it… was it the cancer?" But he'd been getting better! In her last letter two weeks ago, her family had been celebrating that he only had three months to go before the relapse watching period was over!

"No, it wasn't. When your father went in for a checkup because he'd been feeling poorly, a man came in with a gun and took the hospital hostage. Your father—a police officer, I believe?—was reasoning with him to let some of the older, more vulnerable patients go when one of the nurses had a nervous breakdown and attempted to strike him with an IV tube. The man thought it was a ploy and shot your father instead. I'm sorry."

"So… he died in the line of duty?" Lily still couldn't think straight. She sat there limply, staring at Albus Dumbledore, pleading silently that it wasn't true, that this was all a bad dream or at least a very tasteless joke.

"If you would like, you don't have to go to your classes today. You can be alone with yourself and I can create a Floo connection to your family. Lily?"

One tear glistened in her eye and spilled down her cheek. Angrily, she dashed it off. "It's… okay, Headmaster….I'll be… fine." She got up like a marionette with its strings cut, jerkily picked up her bag and walked out of the room.

* * *

The rest of the day passed in a sort of slow moving blur. Apparently the Headmaster had gotten the word out to her professors so none of them went out of their way to call on her. For that she was grateful. She wasn't quite sure she would've been able to talk intelligibly to them. She passed the day like a ghost, turning in to bed early.

* * *

Aww.. Lily's daddy died... actually that was a bit of poetic licence on my part, as i have no idea what happened to them. anyway, the next two chappies will be up soon... and for those of you reading "in-laws, that terrible word", my brain has dried up right now, so i'm afraid that may be put temporarily on hold... until another dream comes and beats me on the head! yay! 

ciao!

PMM


	2. In Which James takes the role of a tree

Okies, thanks to the (one) person(s) who reviewed... what about the other 34 of you out there? I know you're there... you can run but you can't hide...

anyway, major thanks to phoenixtear19 for the review... for the rest of you... just wait 'til i get bachi on you...next chappies up... you _do_ the procudure now, right? you better, but just to refresh your memory:

0. All not mine. Joanne Kathleen Rowling's characters, etc.

1. You read.

2. You like.

2. You hate.

3. You write review.

4. You write nice review with constructive criticism and i send you an owl carrying the biggest box of honeydukes' goodies.

4. You write flame and i use it to burn your face off.

5. We all happy.

Got that? Good! Now read.

It's gonna start with a bit of refresher from the previous chapter. And it will begin with my (extremely poor) attempt at getting inside of a guy's mind, meaning James...

* * *

Haha... silly me! wrote that i would put in a refresher and didn't write one... sorry! here it is:

Lily gets a message from Professor Dumbledore and learns that her dad's been shot. She manages to get through the day, but...

* * *

James turned over in bed, unable to sleep. He tried to figure out why, but his mind kept going to Lily. Why had she been so quiet and deflated after the meeting with the Headmaster? Had she gotten in trouble? If so, what? And if that was the case, why wasn't she in detention or suspended or expelled? He turned over to look out the window, gazing at the clear lake water glistening in the moonlight. Maybe if he went for a swim he would feel less... less... oh, he didn't know how he felt. He put on his glasses and grabbed a towel and a robe and headed down the stairs when he heard something in the Common Room. 

Curious, he peered into the dim room rather than take a secret passage down to the lakeshore. By the light of the dying embers, he saw the figure of a girl curled up on a sofa staring at the fire.

He went down the stairs to her.

"Err...Pardon me."

She turned and he caught the full force of Lily Evans' double-barreled glare. He was disconcerted to see that she had been crying.

She dashed the tears from her face, a futile gesture because more tears flowed to take the place of those wiped off. "What do you want, Potter? Come to have a laugh me?" she asked bitterly.

"Nothing, it's just... why are you crying?"

"None of your business."

"Lily, you never cry. Not even we humilate you to the utmost, not when you get hurt, you never cry. So what's so horrible that it made you cry?"

"It's nothing... nothing except for the fact that world is so unfair and that mine has just shattered."

He sat down beside her. "You can tell me, honest. I promise I won't hold it against you."

"My dad... he's just died. And the ironic thing about it is that it wasn't even because of the cancer. It was because a psychotic man came into the hospital he was in and shot him." She gave a mirthless laugh. "I could've accepted it if were the cancer. We've known about it for a while now, so it wouldn't have been a surprise, or at least not as much as this."

"I'm so sorry, Lily." He put an arm around her and she leaned into him, burying her face in his chest as she began crying in earnest now.

"Why did he have to go? First we see him dying slowly and then his life is cut short so brutally and unfairly!"

James couldn't do anything but comfort her and make soothing noises as her tears soaked into his shirt.

"What was he like, your dad?"

Bit by bit, he heard the story of the man who had been Lily's hero, father, and friend. How they first heard that he only had a few years left to live. How they saw a man who had been so active and lively and humorous with a dedication to the protection of others deteriorate into a pale imitation who couldn't walk very far on some days. Lily told him a story about a time she and Petunia had been fighting.

"Dad came over and told me that because we were sisters, we would be the only people left for each other in this world after he and Mum died. So I had to take care of her."

James couldn't think of anything to say to this. She began to tell more stories about her father. About an incident involving a frog, whipped cream, and the roof that had elicited yelling from her mother at first, but then she too joined in laughing after her father lightened the mood. (James noted that idea as a prank... but not to use on Lily.) About the time they had gone to a haunted house and she had been scared, but her father had held her tightly and even managed to frighten some of the people in the house. They both laughed a bit at that one. Each story brought a fresh attack of tears and soon his shirt was very wet.

Slowly, she subsided and fell still and silent.

"Lily? You'd better be going to bed now. Lily?"

She had fallen asleep, tears still on her face. James wiped them off Levitated both her and himself up the stairs to her dorms and tucked her in.

"Good night, Lily." She half-turned towards him before subsiding.

James left the dorms and sat in the Common Room staring at the flames for the rest of the night.

* * *

WHEE! IT'S CHRISTMAS AND ME'S HIGH ON SUGAR! wow... now that i see that, that's such a contrast between the somber mood of the story and this extremely hyper author's note... 

BUT IT'S _CHRISTMAS!_ i love christmas... it's not so much the present part as it is the cheer part. i love christmas songs and the smells and the atmosphere of joyful anticipation. and the winter break, but isn't that a given? i don't think i ever really believed in Santa, but i believed in the songs, mostly.

anyway, before you, dear reader, get annoyed and bored by my nostalgic reminisces, i will shut up now.

Joyeux Noel (imagine the umlaut over the "e")!

PMM

P.S. If you were annoyed by my little lecture at the top, live with it. 1 out of 35 approximately 2.8 of everyone who read the story. If you don't want to be lectured again, write something... that was very Grinch-y... oh well.

And mail me any questions. I'll answer all of them.


	3. In Which Lily does the unthinkable

hi people!

thanks to all of my reviewers (including my first one): phoenixtear19, Galateagirl (which Galatea is your name based off of?), Strawberry (the anonymous), Rainbowthefairy, and Marauders032.

but what about the rest of you? it's the same as ever! 5 out of 173? that's a mere 2.7! i thought i said something about lectures! (grumble, grumble)...grrrrr...

anyway, this is the last chapter, and it's more of an epilogue-ish kind of thing. if you don't like the ending, bite me. nah, just kidding. but if you don't like the ending, make up your own and send it to me and i'll post it and give you credit.

anyway, that being said, read it.

* * *

The next morning, Lily woke up in bed without the slightest idea how she got there. The last memory she had was of falling asleep on James... wait a minute! Falling _asleep_? On _James_? And why was she referring to him as James anyway? Then she remembered how he'd tried to comfort her. 

"No, it was probably because he wanted to pretend to be nice and then at breakfast he's going to humiliate me even more. Yeah, that's probably right."

But a voice niggled at her. _What if he was being_ sincere_? You have seen him be kind to others, haven't you?_ **_Actually, not really..._**_Oh come on, Lily. Own up. He's not really that selfish, cocky, arrogant brat that you knew in first year who thought he was doing you a favor by asking you out. **Please don't bring up memories of him during those years. That ass made my life a living hell.** Cuz he liked you. And he's not really that bad; he did comfort you._

"Snap out of it, Lily. Stop talking to yourself and get yourself down to breakfast," she lectured to herself out loud. Her dormmates were too used to this by now to even glance at her. Still, she was last to leave the girls' dorms, waging a furious mental battle with herself.

"Lily."

She turned. James had waited for her. "Oh. Hi, James."

"Did you sleep well last night? You fell asleep and I didn't want to leave you in the Common Room, so..." He trailed off awkwardly.

They went down to breakfast together in silence, James longing to say something on a nice bland topic that wouldn't offend either or bring back the events of last night, and Lily trying to figure out James' hidden agenda while warring with herself about his sincerity.

"Well then..." James trailed off again as they reached the doors to the Great Hall.

"See you in Transfiguration," she replied and walked ahead to open the door. Then she paused and turned.

"Thanks, James," she said as she hugged him.

* * *

AGGHHHH! SO FLUFFY! TEETH ROTTING! but a nice ending, don't you think? anyway, just remember what i told you about not liking the ending. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS! OR HANUKKAH! OR KWANZA! OR BODHI DAY! OR WHATEVER OTHER HOLIDAY YOU HAVE AROUND THIS TIME OF YEAR THAT YOU HAVE PUMPED UP SO IT CAN COMPETE WITH THE COMMERCIALISED CHRISTMAS!

that being said, psychoticmassmurderer is going to turn in now.

annyoung!

PMM


End file.
